Canadian women ready for Haiti

VANCOUVER – "There's definitely a lot of compassion going around, but once you cross that line, you forget about that."

Christine Sinclair, Canada's captain, echoed the sentiments of her coach and teammates as she outlined her team's feelings going into Thursday's match against Haiti at the CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying tournament.

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"Our team's been talking about it a lot," Sinclair continued, speaking at BC Place following Canada's final practice on Wednesday. "Obviously it's a game you want to win -- we feel we have to win -- but away from soccer there's a bigger picture. We can't imagine what they've been through.”

Much of the media's focus on Wednesday was Haiti's struggles to rebuild following the devastating earthquake in January 2010 which killed over 300,000 people.

Apart from the general turmoil felt throughout the country, the Caribbean nation's soccer program was deeply affected, as 30 employees of the Haiti Football Federation were killed as the headquarters collapsed during the earthquake.

"I remember watching CNN crying, after the devastation that they faced,' goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc said. "Their women's national team has been through a lot themselves. They've come through a lot -- their families have been through a lot. I don't think they want to be felt sorry for, but I know you grieved with them -- I know I did. But when we cross that line, it's for our country."

The Canadian team fundraised for the Haitian squad during the qualification campaign for last year's Women's World Cup, and the help from Canadians is continuing this time around. The Haitians arrived in Vancouver without all of the necessary equipment and gear, but BC Soccer stepped up to fill the void by providing some kits and gear to ensure they'll be able to have a fair crack at Olympic qualification.

Canada are the heavy favourites going into Thursday's match, ranked seventh in the world by FIFA, and are fresh off a gold medal under new coach John Herdman at the 2011 Pan American Games.

The Englishman is happy he had that tournament to instil his own soccer philosophy ahead of the Olympic qualifying round, but says the job isn't done yet.

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"I would have loved to have been here four years going into this tournament, but that's not to be," Herdman said. "I'm lucky they've had some good coaching prior to (my arrival), so they've got some experience there. All I'm trying to do is help them develop their own style and image -- what they want to see, what they want to project out to the public.

"My job is more of a facilitator over these last three months. When you're working with a team with so much experience you have to go with the flow sometimes. We're not too far away from what we want to see -- we want to see good football – a really imposing style from the Canadians."

Haiti, in comparison to the high-powered Canadians, is ranked 62nd in the world and are heavy underdogs. Herdman is primarily focused on building toward the semifinal, which he refers to as "game four."

"We have to accept (the expectations)," Herdman said. "We're seventh on the world in paper, we should go through this group comfortably. I expect them to do that, but at the same time we have a goal to make sure we don't expose ourselves too much during those three games and that we're fresh and ready for the big game in game four."